Can six hours of working time create a sustainable working life? : A qualitative study based on some employees' experience of six hours working day. (Engelska)

Abstract [en]

Working time reduction can be a means of reducing stress in society. Having a reasonable working time for wage workers is important in order to get the job done today. Today's problem is to create a sustainable working life for people in the future. According to the Ministry of Labor, several factors show that working life is not adapted to people's ability and needs. Work-related ill health is growing, which has been shown in increasing sick leave and stress in working life. Even the recovery time has decreased which leads to wear damage (Ds 2000: 22, p.14). The study aims at examining employee's experience of working time shortening thirteen years after organizational reform and see what this type of working-time reduction has meant for internal values such as: motivation, participation, requirements and learning that are indicators of a sustainable working life. Data gathering has helped with semi structured interview questions combined with open questions to get a more detailed answer. The study is based on a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The interview includes eight workshop staff in a car company that has worked with both eight hours and six hours of work since 2002. The results showed that six hours of work with retained pay create motivation for employees who increase their productivity unemployment and efficiency even after thirteen years. This may be because they are experiencing their psychosocial work environment positively, which are the main motivational factors, indicating sustainable working life. Furthermore, the requirement has increased after the shortening of working hours, as the pressures to perform in a short period of time are experienced stressful. However, despite this picture, there is no risk of ill health when the employee's absence due to illness is not increased. Six-hour working day with retained salary contributes to reduced sick leave for long-term sickness who work full time instead of being partially ill-treated. The role of organizations is to create greater conditions for recovery for individuals to work longer and to have a sustainable working life. The result is consistent with previous research that has been done in a shorter period of time, where self-perceived health is increasing. Furthermore, the result shows that the activities and focuses on people's learning and skills development can thus maintain a sustainable working life. The theoretical frame of reference for the study contains the requirements -control-support model, experience theory, organization's change, Kasam.